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Fearful temperament in middle childhood predicts adolescent attention bias and anxiety symptoms: The moderating role of frontal EEG asymmetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2021

Ran Liu Open the ORCID record for Ran Liu [Opens in a new window]  and
Martha Ann Bell
Ran Liu*
Affiliation:
The Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, USA
Martha Ann Bell
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA
*
Corresponding author: Ran Liu, email: rl3206@cumc.columbia.edu
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Abstract

The current study provided first analyses of the moderating effect of baseline-to-task frontal EEG asymmetry on the associations between 9-year fearful temperament and adolescent attention bias to threat as well as anxiety symptoms. Participants include a community sample of 122 children (60 boys, 62 girls; Mage = 14.66 years; Range = 11.82–18.13 years). Baseline-to-task frontal EEG asymmetry at age 9 moderated the relation between fearful temperament at age 9 and adolescent anxiety symptoms. Specifically, fearful temperament predicted adolescent anxiety symptoms when children showed greater right activation from baseline to an executive function task, but not greater left activation. Baseline-to-task frontal EEG asymmetry moderated the association between fearful temperament and sustained (i.e., stimulus onset asynchrony is 1250 ms) but not automatic attention bias (i.e., stimulus onset asynchrony is 500 ms). Children with greater left frontal activation from baseline to task more efficiently direct attention away from threat. Adolescent automatic attention bias to threat was related to concurrent anxiety symptoms. These findings illustrate the importance of considering frontal EEG asymmetry to shape how fearful children process threat and to influence their behavioral problems.

Keywords

anxietyattention bias to threatfearful temperamentfrontal EEG asymmetry
Type
Regular Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , August 2023 , pp. 1335 - 1345
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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